If you thought the culture wars were over and Christianity lost, the Rev. Franklin Graham would like you to think again.
Friday, as much of the country reeled from President Obama’s order that all public schools must allow transgendered people to use opposite-sex bathrooms, the president of Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association expressed his personal outrage. Taking to Facebook, he issued the following rebuke:
“Who does President Barack Obama think he is? The sultan of Washington? Does he think he can just make a ‘decree’ and we will bow down and simply obey?
“The decree he released today says that all schools across the country have to allow students to choose the restrooms and locker rooms according to ‘their internal sense of gender.’ If schools don’t comply, he threatens loss of funding and lawsuits from the federal government.
“What about the privacy and protection of all the other students? Isn’t this discrimination against all of them? This opens up bathrooms to sexual predators and perverts. A decree does not carry the force of law—that’s the job of Congress.
“The president obviously must have no fear of God, who made us and created us male and female. I hope that school districts across this nation will defy President Obama and his administration’s radical progressive agenda to promote and advance the sin of homosexuality and the LGBT agenda.”
While that was all he had to say specifically about the issue, a couple of comments he made over the weekend certainly added to the message. Sunday, he asked his social media followers, “What would you to take a bullet for?”
“What are the principles and beliefs that you would not compromise under any circumstances? Even if it meant putting your life on the line?” he asked. “King Nebuchadnezzar who reigned over Babylon issued a decree that everyone worship the golden image he had made. Three men who knew the one true and living God, refused to worship the king’s idol—their names were Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
“The king told them, ‘But if you do not worship, you shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.’ Here is their bold reply:
“‘O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up’ (Dan. 3:16-18).
“Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stood firm in obedience and faithfulness. They stood up for God’s truth. They stood up for their faith, and they didn’t waiver, even when it meant putting their very lives at risk. I want to call on every Christian and every pastor to stand firm like these patriarchs of old and not bow to the secular, increasingly godless culture in which we live—even when (not if) we’re criticized, mocked, and labeled intolerant.
“The God of the Old Testament that delivered Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from their fiery execution is the same God today—and He is still more than able to save. Will you stand against ungodliness? What are you willing to take a bullet for?”
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